Foundation Venture Capital Group Invests in UMDNJ Company Working to Improve Leukemia ...( NEW BRUNSWICK N.J. March 23 /- Each y...),Health

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J., March 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Each year in the United States more than 138,000 people are diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma or myeloma. These new cases account for 10 percent of the new total cancer cases in the U.S. per year. For several types of leukemia, the survival rate has not changed in the past 25 years.

That's why James M. Golubieski, president of Foundation Venture Capital Group, LLC, a New Jersey Health Foundation affiliate, is proud to announce that the company has made a $500,000 commitment to Actinobac Biomed Inc., a company developing a therapeutic agent targeting white leukemic blood cells for the treatment of hematological malignancies, including leukemia, myeloma and lymphoma.

"Based on current statistics, one can see there is a great need to introduce new therapies for patients suffering from hematologic malignancies," explained Dr. Scott Kachlany. "Our primary drug candidate, Leukotoxin, has shown significant success in laboratory and animal studies. With this investment from Foundation Venture Capital Group we look toward moving our research further at a more rapid pace."

Dr. Kachlany, founder of Actinobac Biomed and an associate professor of oral biology, microbiology and molecular genetics at UMDNJ-New Jersey Dental School, discovered the agent, Leukotoxin, during the course of his research at the dental school.

The research was originally funded with one-year matching grants from the New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology and the Foundation of UMDNJ Annual Program Committee Awards.

Leukotoxin is a bacterial toxin that targets while blood cells. In laboratory studies, malignant white blood cells have been determined to be more sensitive to Leukotoxin than non-cancerous white blood cells. Animal studies in Dr. Kachlany's lab using mouse models for human leukemia have shown Leukotoxin to possess significant anti-leukemia
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